ZANIS reports that Kapiri Mposhi Constituency Returning Officer, Jimmy Musweu declared Mr. Musonda as winner of the by-election at exactly 14:45 hours at Kapiri Mposhi District Council which was used as a totaling center.

Mr. Musweu announced that a total of 12,709 ballots were cast against 84, 386 registered voters in the vast Kapiri Mposhi Constituency.

He said 182 votes were rejected as invalid in the by-election marred by high voter apathy.

And newly elected Kapiri Mposhi MP Eddie Musonda has thanked the people of Kapiri Mposhi for electing him.

Speaking after he was declared winner of the seat, Mr. Musonda assured the people of Kapiri Mposhi that he will work with them to deliver development to the area.

Mr. Musonda said he will put the road network rehabilitation on top of his development agenda.

Meanwhile, PF Kapiri Mposhi constituency campaign manager, Philip Kosamu has described the win by his party as sweet victory.

Mr. Kosamu said the win was also symbolic of the PF’s dominance in Central Province adding that the party was slowly increasing its numbers of MPs from three to four in the province.

He said by voting for Mr. Musonda, the people of Kapiri Mposhi were assured of development and urged them to support and rally behind their new Member of Parliament.

He has since implored the losing opposition candidates to accept defeat and work with Mr. Musonda and the PF government in developing the area

The Kapiri Mposhi parliamentary by-election was necessitated by the Supreme Court’s nullification of the election of the then Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) Member of Parliament, Lawrence Zimba after the 2011 general elections.

This followed a successful election petition by PF losing candidate in the 2011 general elections, Eddie Musonda who challenged the election of Mr. Zimba as fraudulent.

Upon losing the petition, Mr. Zimba defected to the UPND where he was adopted to re-contest the seat while the ruling PF re-adopted Mr. Musonda to contest the seat.

The former ruling party, MMD, did not field a candidate in the by-election and opted to support the UPND candidate, Mr. Zimba under its loose political alliance.

Voters in the Kapiri Mposhi and Lukulu West constituencies yesterday went to the polls to elect their new representatives.

Meanwhile ZANIS effort to get comments from both the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) and United National Independence Party (UNIP) campaign teams failed as they sneaked out of the totaling center before the official announcement of the results.